Short Fiction Needs a Platform

In an earlier post, “Short Fiction Decline“, I point out Neil Clarke’s post on the decline of short fiction publication readership. He remains optimistic due to some new online publications showing promise. A recent post, “More Crappy News for Short Story Writers” by Seth Fischer starts a discussion on short story collections including a response by one story blog, and a post by Larry Dark. Please take a look at these posts including the informative comments on Fischer’s post.

Some points brought up in the discussion:

Novels get more promotion.
Book publishers avoid short fiction.
Some short fiction sells.
Competition with instant access media.
Consumers today have shorter attention spans (??)
Some readers want immersion with long stories.
Traditional books may not be the best place for short fiction.

I noted #5 as a question because of the debate in the comments under Fischer’s post: Does short fiction benefit? One comment points out that short stories may require more dedication by the reader. Do readers have short attention spans? Not avid readers.

For the average consumer, finding short fiction is a challenge. Large book chains no longer carry literary magazines leaving a consumer searching through small independent book stores gazing at a limited supply. Publishers and retail stores promote novels. Dark points out that some story collections sell very well. Short fiction sells when promoted.

Perhaps consumers have grown a taste for novels finding short stories more difficult to enjoy. They want immersion. Reading short fiction is not the same as reading a novel. And when curious consumers try a few short stories, they find boring literary prose, some incomplete stories without a beginning or ending. Or the reader finds a genre magazine full of poorly written stories. Searching for online publications may results in ugly websites with bizarre text colors making reading a chore. So, many readers stick to short stories written by familiar authors like Stephen King. And big book publishers cringe at the idea of a short story collection.

Short fiction needs a platform. If publications want to survive in this world full of noise they need to be part of the community with their readers. Help readers find the stories they want to read. Share knowledge by taking part in other communities. Design beautiful websites with easy navigation. And promote good writers.

Writers need to join the community, work with publications, improve their skills. Write fantastic short stories.

http://benwhite.com Ben White

I debate point 5 as well. For online fiction, I think the issue is not so much with a short attention span but a highly cynical attitude for quality. There is so much out there that we are happy to disengage from the things that do not interest us. We don't always know who to trust, how to choose.

There probably is something to be said though, as you mentioned, for the novel. Perhaps readers to do prefer the immersion and larger scale of your typical book. Especially with contemporary literary fiction, the short story is often a beast of small changes in characters, of pivotal moments in a single life. Perhaps the scale for such epiphanies is too small for our big, globalized 21st century reader.
http://www.dracotorre.com/blog/ David G Shrock

Ben, great points on not always knowing how to choose.

Another issue with online short fiction publications is that the web page makes for poor presentation without extensive design and still is uncomfortable for many readers for lengths beyond flash fiction. I would like to see more support for alternate delivery methods such as digital reader support so readers may take stories with them and bookmark their position.
http://www.dracotorre.com/blog/ David G Shrock

Ben, great points on not always knowing how to choose.

Another issue with online short fiction publications is that the web page makes for poor presentation without extensive design and still is uncomfortable for many readers for lengths beyond flash fiction. I would like to see more support for alternate delivery methods such as digital reader support so readers may take stories with them and bookmark their position.
http://benwhite.com Ben White

The design of even some of the most exclusive online mags is atrocious, this is an undeniable and saddening fact. Words are the most important thing, but context matters!

As for bookmarking, it's interesting that you brought that up. This is something that I think will come to even the internet sites in good time. MCM (1889.ca) has a reader for his online fiction that keeps track of your place in his work by using javascript to change the url. You bookmark the url, you know where you left off. It's consequently pretty slow to scroll and bit of a kludge, but it shows that people are thinking about it. I think using cookies, one could make a site that very neatly keeps track of where you left off. In the magical future, a common account (like disqus) could keep track of this and would let keep your place across devices (so you could pick up where you left off on your handheld, etc). I hadn't put much thought into it, but that is a big reason why longer works don't work well on the internet.